Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The lovely Marni Telford has started up her own childrenswear business, and she makes and sells the cutest, funkiest little things.

Check out this little jumpsuit she sent me for Levi, with hand-stitched detail and a great boys design. Also the jumpsuits she embellishes are super cosy, and of such nice stretchy fabric - so soft on little ones skin.

Here are a couple more images of things she makes and sells. How funky are they? :-P

My little boy is not so little anymore - 5 years old now - unbelievable! School next year which is even crazier.

Here's a few things about Jude at 5 :* Still loves all things Star Wars, Transformers, Lego and Robot-based* Uses words like 'awesome' and 'cool' to describe things he likes* Eats cornflakes or rice bubbles for breakfast everyday* Loves playing with his big sister, and gets bored when she's not around* Nearly every night when Roh gets home, he utters the words 'play something with me daddy'* He can't sit still! Even at dinner time he's monkeying about on the chair, or while watching a movie he'll be climbing all over the couch...it's frustrating to watch, but also quite funny when you think about it.* Loves having stories read to him* Can count to 20* Still sneaks into our bed most nights for snuggles* Adores his new little brother, and loves to chat to him while he's having his nappy changed

Look how cheeky (and adorable and spunky..he he) they look...they'll be up to mischief together in no time, I'm sure!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

I've had this softie idea in my head for a few weeks now for this monster..my sketch makes him look a little menacing, but he's not going to be - more like a big, goofy, friendly monster with a quirky grin...we'll see anyhow..

And I'm planning on making some little aprons and/or bakers hats for party pressies for Lana's friends who are coming to her cupcake party in July. I've just ordered the invites, and I think I really better get onto this otherwise I'll never get them done...

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

One of our more recent additions to the weekday lunches, are my homemade sausage rolls. The first batch I started using a Donna Hay recipe, but ended up changing and adding ingredients all over the place, so now the recipe is truly mine....and the family love them!

How to :1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.2. Combine mince, eggs, apple, stuffing mix, soy sauce, tomato paste, salt and pepper.3. Cut your pastry sheets in half. Do this as you go, so as not to waste extra pastry. Amount used will vary depending on the size you make the individual sausages.4. Roll your meat into a long sausage, and place on the long edge of the pastry. Make sure your sausage goes end to end.5. Roll pastry over the sausage, sealing and squishing the pastry edges together. Slice into four equal portions.6. Place on baking tray with pastry join sitting flat on the bottom of the sausage roll.7. Continue repeating this until all mince mixture is finished.8. Brush with the egg, and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

Monday, June 21, 2010

So on Saturday night, Roh decided to give bread-making a go. It's been on my to-do list this last week, but I never quite got around to it, so Roh jumped in, with a little help from Jude. (above photo is a little out of focus - sorry! I'm going to blame the bad lighting..he he)

There is just something so yummy about bread fresh from the oven, especially on a cold winters night...mmmm

Thursday, June 17, 2010

It started out innocent enough - I thought I'd do some scrapbooking (there is a layout in the photo..camouflaged a little maybe, but definitely there :-P). Then while sorting through some alphabets, I thought - why not have a big clean out, sort through, etcetera so that's what I've been doing, and will continue to do today. It's always good for the creative mojo to do some de-cluttering...well, I think so anyway..

And just a quick share of a couple of finished projects, from my 'unfinished projects' pile.

First up, some pj's for my nephew Bodie - in size 3. Now, I didn't actually make the top, but I did add the dinosaurs onto it. I started making these a couple of months ago, but got stalled when I was short of fabric. Feels good to get these done.

And next up is a granny square scarf, that I have given to Dan. It uses 12 granny squares, and is finished off with a single crochet edge. I really like the way this one turned out..so I might make another one someday....

Other than the above scrap layout, I've got a couple of crochet beanie bands to assemble and I'm halfway through a striped crochet scarf, which are my projects currently on the go. I also have to start getting into the plans for Alannah's cupcake party which is in late July, and have a huge sewing to-do list.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Yesterday the kids had some fun stamping with paint and apples and carrots - they found it hilarious at first, that you can use fruit and veg as stamps, but it didn't take them long to get into it.

As with most crafty type things, Jude only played along for a very short period of time, with a lot of random stamping, while Lana took the design from our craft book and spent a lot of time getting it right.

And while they played with paint, I started a new crochet project...

I'm in love with the colours I'm using, and its already 70% finished - yay! Will share when I'm all done.

Preheat oven to 160/Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until pale and creamy.Gradually add the eggs and beat well.Add the poppy seeds, orange rind,milk and flour.Beat until just combined.Spoon into a lightly greased 5 cup capacity loaf tine lined with non-stick baking paper.Bake for 50 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer.Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.

For the syrup, place the sugar and water in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved.Add the orange slices and cook for 10 minutes.Allow to cool.

Top the loaf with orange slices and pour over the syrup to serve.Serves 6 - 8.

Friday, June 04, 2010

With the coolness of winter now hitting us, nothing warms the belly like home-made soup and fresh bread rolls. I'm a big fan of pumpkin soup, but after a couple of batches, my family asked me to do a different variation of it. So I did a bit of googling, and stumbled upon this recipe :

and it was very yummy! I have a bit of a soft spot for vanilla flavoured things (ie, fav drink - decaf vanilla latte) so this recipe really appealed to me.

So along with the soup, I also decided to give dinner rolls a go myself. And besides a couple of small errors on my part (sometimes multi-tasking is not my friend :-P) they turned out quite nice too - yay!This week I also tried a slow cooker Chicken & Barley soup which my lovely friend Kate recommended, and that was fantastic. I'm really getting into the soup thing at the moment...can you tell?...he he

What winter soups do you love? Please feel free to share any recipe links. I know I would really appreciate it!